Happy Boston Tea Party Day

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-12-17 03:22:38 | Updated at 2024-12-17 05:34:28 2 hours ago
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Happy Boston Tea Party Day
Twitter ^ | December 16, 2024 | Mark McEathron

Posted on 12/16/2024 7:14:44 PM PST by TBP

Today is the 251st anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Most Americans know that some dudes dressed up like Indian's and tossed tea into the Boston Harbor to protest....stuff.

However, there are a lot of fascinating things that happened leading up to this, and this post will tell the whole story.

It's a long read, so grab some coffee like a REAL American and enjoy the tale...

To understand the Boston Tea Party, you should understand the players involved.

Player 1: We have British Parliament. They just fought the world's first actual global war. The Seven Years War. It spanned every continent except Antarctica, and involved several nations. The Scale of this war left Britain absolutely financially broken. The needed money.

Player 2: East India Company.(EIC). Commissioned and blessed by Queen Elizabeth way back in 1600, this corporation pretty much managed all of England's Trade. They developed protection forces to secure trade, and by 1757, they had a full scale military under their control, and even won a war, and took over Bangle, which they held for 100 years. The war in Bangle, left them destitute as well. This truly would have been no different than filing your taxes with Tesla, and enlisting in the Army only to be assigned to the Bath and Body Works Grenadier Battalion...

Player 3: Colonial Merchants and Ship owners: I will focus on three of these for this story. Francis Roach owned the Dartmouth and the Beaver. John Rowe owned the Elenore.

The Captains of these ships were: James Hall for the Dartmouth, James Bruce for the Elenore, and Hezekiah Coffin for the Beaver

Player 4: The citizens of Boston.

Player 5: The local Boston Government.

Now, we set the stage:

After the Seven Years War, and the Conquering, and managing of Bangle, both England and the EIC were really facing a serious economic crisis. As well as a humanitarian one.

Tea was gold, or close to it. It was widely popular in all of the British Empire. We know that it still kind of remains that way still to this very day. But back in the late 1700's is was on overdrive.

Tea made up almost 50% of the EIC's trade. It was very expensive to bring to the market, as it would first have to go through British ports in England, where it would be hit with a tariff, which we all know gets passed on to the consumers. On top of the tariffs, there were fees assessed by the wholesalers, as well as the final retail agents. It all added up to make for quite the costly commodity, that remained in high demand.

So, the Americans for decades, had used the Dutch to provide a "solution". The Dutch ships would acquire the tea from the same location that the EIC would acquire theirs; Canton, China. But the Dutch would sail straight to the colonies.

Merchants in the colonies made a ton of money, off of smuggling Dutch tea into the colonies, to sell locally. Consumers could buy the same tea, for 50% less than the EIC tea.

In 1757 it was estimated that roughly 400 chests of tea came to Philadelphia. Only 16 of them legally. The rest was smuggled. By 1771, 80% of all tea in Boston was smuggled. Even more in NY and Philly. Upwards of 90%.

One well known ship owner made what amounts to millions of todays dollars off of smuggling tea. None other than John Hancock himself. The 1770's version of Han Solo.

Needless to say, this smuggling operation really hurt both England's and the EIC's ability to recover their losses from the wars. So, Parliament needed to act, and act they did...

In 1767 they passed the Indemnity Act. This lowered the tariff duties on tea sold in England, and refunded the duties on the tea that was shipped to the Americas. The massively lowered the expense of the tea, and enabled the EIC to better compete with the smugglers.

It worked too. The EIC was able to sell 40% more Tea in NY and actually 100% more in Philly within 18 months. American's were buying legal tea.

For a few days....seriously....only a few days....

Literally days after passing the Indemnity Act, Parliament also passed the Townsend Act. This placed heavy taxes on things like lead, paper, and you guessed it...tea.

The Colonies responded to the Townsend Acts with a Non-Importation boycott of all products taxed under this act. They were enraged that England had the audacity to levy these taxes, and riots broke out. Rioters attacked merchants that would import the products. In one riot, shots were fired and a young 11yr old boy named Christopher Cider was killed. The outrage over his death, is what lead to the infamous Boston Massacre.

On the same day as the Boston Massacre, a Lord Fredrick North issues a partial repeal of the Townsend act, on everything except...tea...

North's effort to quell the heat worked a little. The citizens ended the non-importation boycotts.

Things sort of calmed down...for a moment...

The EIC meanwhile, was not faring so well.

Massive economic, social, and humanitarian crisis were all coming to a head in Bangle. The EIC's management of this was going poorly. As their domain was crumbling, they were issuing out 12/5% dividends to their investors. That is, until 1772 when the debt was so large, that the Bank of England refused to issue any more dividends. The investors dried up.

Since the EIC was England's primary trade manager, they were simply the first "too big to fail" corporation, and England pulled a George Bush, and issued them a $1.4 million dollar loan...deepening their debt...

Parliament knew that they had to do something to repair this damage and so they passed the Tea Act in an effort to end colonial smuggling once and for all, and restore the EIC and British revenue streams.

They passed the Tea Act. The 3rd external tax in 3 years...

The goal was to make EIC tea as cheap as possible, so they went about it by repealing ALL duties in England, 100% rebates on duties to the Americas, direct sales to the retail agents that bypassed all the middle men and red tape. They ended the auctions and wholesalers completely. The big hits though were the fact that the Tea Act allowed Britain to select their own consignees, keep the Townsend tax on tea in place, and created a full on tea monopoly.

Oh....and all of this funded more British soldiers shipped into American colonies.

Parliament, with the help of the EIC, absolutely crippled American merchants and a face-off was about to commence.

In October of 1773 7 ships full of tea left London headed towards the Americas. One ship to NY. One ship to Philadelphia. One ship to Charleston.

The remaining 4 ships were on their way to Boston.

On November 28th, the Dartmouth arrives with 3 British warships to look over it. This started a 20 day clock.

You have to understand the clock. In 1662, Parliament passes an act stating that a ship's cargo cannot be unloaded or clear customs for export until all duties are paid. If they are not paid, then Customs officers can seize the cargo after 20 days, and commence with distributing it to their selected consignee retail agents for sale.

Since the duties were no longer a factor, the 20 day hold was all that remained.

2 local Customs Agents, well aware of the tension building, boarded the Dartmouth to confirm that the tea on board was in fact EIC tea. They then selected the consignees, while Boston Selectmen try to convince the consignees to send the tea back in order to avoid violence. It did not work...

On November 29th, 19 days before the cargo could be seized, 6,000 Boston citizens, 1/3rd the population, meet at Nathaniel Hall, but then move to the Old South Meeting House for a larger venue. They were meeting to discuss how to keep the tea out of Boston.

Of course, our favorite smuggler, John Hancock, and our favorite rabble rouser, Sam Adams were in attendance. Sam got right to it and threatened Francis Rotch's life if he didn't send his ships back to London.

The problem though was that Britain made it clear that if he did so, all of his ships would be seized, and he would be imprisoned. The dude was truly stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

At the end of this meeting, the Bostonians sent 25 armed men down to the wharf to keep watch over the ships to ensure no cargo would be unloaded.

On December 1st, 16 days until seizure, the patriots have the Captain relocate the ship to Griffen's Wharf where they can better watch over it.

December 2nd, 15 days until seizure, the Elenore arrives in Boston. On that day, a poster goes up stating that if anyone helps unload these ships, they will be treated as "unworthy to live". Boston wasn't playing...

December 3rd, 14 days until seizure, the Committee of Correspondence, a patriot group set up to resist parliamentary acts, order the Elenore Captain, James Bruce to anchor at Griffen's Wharf as well.

December 7th, only 10 days now until seizure, the Beaver approaches Boston, but has a small pox outbreak onboard. They are ordered into a 10 day quarantine.

The Essex Gazette writes a headline stating that Bostonians will fight if the ships are unloaded.

Francis Rotch and Dartmouth Captain Hames Hall rush to the Fort on Castle Island to see the Consignees. Rotch tells them that he is ready to deliver the tea and it will be their fault (with England) if it remains on the ship. The Consignees know that if they attempt to unload, they will be attacked. So they refuse to issue the paperwork allowing the tea to be unloaded and set up Francis Rotch as the fall guy with Britain.

James Bruce of the Elenor also tries this, and get the same response.

On December 10th, 7 days from seizure, the ship the William approaches but gets caught in a storm. It becomes shipwrecked the next morning, but the tea is intact.

December 13th, 4 days remain.... The EIC's consignee's in NY refuse the ship sent there and return it to England. The Philadelphia consignees just flat out noped out of the whole thing and resigned.

On this day, the Committee of Correspondence meets again with Rotch having to face them with the bad news. He met with his attorney, John Adams, and confirmed that if he rejects this cargo, he will lose everything, including his liberty. He can't do it.

December 14th, 3 days until customs seizure, citizens meet again at the Old South Meeting house. Captain James Bruce was lucky enough to arrange a deal to take the Elenore back to England if he can unload everything from the ship that's not tea. The mob pressures Francis Rotch to try more. So, he, Sam Adams, and 9 other men go to visit the Port Collector to see if they can get approval to leave.

The Port Collector was a man named Richard Harrison. His father, Joseph Harrison was the Custom Collector that seized John Hancock's ship, the Liberty back in June of 1768. Remember those non-import riots? Yeah, well the rioters assaulted Joseph and John (who was only 18 then) and burned down their home.

Harrison told the 10 men, "I'll think about it..."

December 15th, 2 days until seizure, Francis Rotch returns to see Harrison, who obviously tells him that he cannot help him.

December 16th, the customs seizure becomes legal at midnight, the quarantine on the Beaver ends. Now two ships are in harbor ready to deliver tea... time's up.

At 10am 5k citizens meet at the Old South Meeting House, just a block from the Liberty Tree. Again they pressure Francis Rotch. He decides to try to reason with the Governor, Thomas Hutchinson.

The Old South House meeting breaks at noon to let him go try. They agree to meet again at 3pm.

Francis appeals to Hutchinson to no avail.

3pm the citizens meet again at the Old South Meeting house, 9 hrs left until seizure...

Francis Rotch doesn't show....

5pm, citizens getting very agitated, 7 hours until seizure...

5:45 Francis Rotch returns to break the news. The mob wants to kill him, but Sam Adams reminds them that Rotch acted in good faith this whole time. and stands up to deliver a speech.

Sam Adams tells the citizens that there is nothing further that they can do, and that we've done all that we can do. We los.....t'hold on!

Right at that very moment, 18 to 20 men arrive at the venue. MOHAWKS!!!!! They were in a full on battle cry, and oddly enough....some of them were doing...what was that?.....boson whistles!? Weird Mohawks. But, man they arrived just in time. Almost like it was....nah....couldn't be....staged?

The Mohawks announce that Boston Harbor will be a teapot tonight.

The crowd is dispersed, and the Sons of Liberty leaders stay behind to preserve their won alibis. If they are there, they can't be at the boats.

The "Mohawks" in full battle cry rush to the wharf and to the ships. That crowd that was supposed to go home? They followed and watched the show.

The ruckus was so loud that the troops on Castle Island could hear the battle cries.

The "Mohawks" started with the Dartmouth and moved on to the Beaver.

Over the next 3 hours, they destroyed 112 crates on the Beaver, 114 on the Dartmouth, and 114 on the Elenore (who hadn't actually left). 340 total crates equaling 46 TONS of tea.

It was 9,659 sterling pounds of silver's worth of tea, which in today's money is over $1 million.

Everyone heads home. When William Russel made it home, he took off his boots, and dumped what tea had fallen in, into his fireplace, and then dumped all the tea in his home into the same fireplace.

The next morning, he relabeled the tea pot with one word..."COFFEE".

Thus ended America's love of Tea, and began our obsession with coffee. Speaking of which, how was yours?

They were so serious about this that one member of the riot, Charles Connor tried to stuff his pockets with tea. He promptly received a colonial beatdown.

Of course, if you destroy over $1 million dollars of product from a company your government invests in heavily, they get big mad.

Parliament responded with the Coercive Acts:

1. Boston Port Act - This completely closed the entire port of Boston, ending all commerce.

2. Administration of Justice Act - No local trials. Anyone suspected of a crime, could be shipped to England for trial. No jury of peers.

3. Massachusetts Government Act - Changed the Charter of the colony to no longer allow local election of their Council members. They would be appointed from Britain.

4. The Quartering Act - Now England was going to use your home to quarter their soldiers. You need to feed them.

The colonies had another term for these 4 bills...

The Intolerable Acts.

War was inevitable.

Happy Boston Tea Party Day, my friends!


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bostonteaparty; teaparty

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The story of the Boston Tea Party

1 posted on 12/16/2024 7:14:44 PM PST by TBP

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